Trump Administration Reverses Decision to Kill Proposed MN Mine

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Trump administration has resurrected an effort to build the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota.

Last December, the Obama administration declined to renew the long-standing leases that the company needs for the underground mine it wants to build near Ely, upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. But in an opinion published Friday, a top attorney at the U.S. Interior Department concluded the Bureau of Land Management erred last year when it concluded that BLM had the power to grant or deny the lease renewals.

Minnesota Public Radio News reports the reversal means the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service must reconsider Twin Metals' 2012 lease renewal application.

Twin Metals also had filled a federal lawsuit to try to invalidate the Obama administration decision. But the company voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit Friday.